The Fifth Attempt

The Fifth Attempt

We’ve made it back up the mountain. I guess the fifth attempt is the magical one. All in God’s timing. A special thanks to all the prayer warriors who made this possible.

It wasn’t long before the mountain knew the missionaries were back. Julio is at our apartment door at 9pm with a stomach ache and in want of prayers. At 6am I’m sitting at my table reading. By 7am the dogs are barking and my first visitor from the neighboring village, Mantasano, is heading up the stairs of the apartments. Portfilio is suffering from back pain and has a constant squint on his face, not so much from the pain but from poor eyesight. He is in dire need of glasses. I will help him with the pain now and will search my resources in Guatemala to find when an eye doctor will be in the area. By 8:30am a string of woman with their children are lined up across the front of the apartments. We have children and parents with worms, fevers, diarrhea, colds, stomach aches, and back pains. There are families in need of shoes, soap, shampoo, vitamins, and toothpaste. The kids and I will spend into early afternoon in the clinic dispensing of needed items. After lunch Cassidy and I will now gather baby blankets and several change of clothes to welcome the two newborns of the village. By mid-afternoon Cassidy and I are on our last house call to visit the baby whose mother had died in childbirth several weeks before we returned home in June. Nikoli, the father, is no where to be found. His 8 year old daughter with his 5 year old son is with the baby. This 4 month old baby is so tiny. All three of these siblings are covered with dirt. The baby is sucking on a bottle that has small bugs floating in a milky liquid. As I suspected the nipple is crusted almost shut. It is no surprise that she has diarrhea. Cassidy gathers the baby and we all head back to the clinic in search of clothes for the three children and milk and a new bottle for the baby. From there it is off to the apartment to clean the bottle and use Dylan’s mastery of the Spanish language to iterate the importance of keeping the bottle clean. The children request sugar. This is a perfect chance for bribery. If the children bring Nikoli back I’ll give them the sugar. The plan is to talk Nikoli into allowing the baby to stay with us to get her healthy.
Everyone who reads this blog has an assignment of saying a few prayers that Nikoli will be in favor of us taking care of his baby.